The present invention generally relates to graphical user interface methodologies for conveying the absence of data in a multidimensional array.
Every year, more and more data is gathered and utilized in more and more contexts and applications. Information is often organized in a multidimensional array format, and might be displayed to a user in an interface such as a spreadsheet interface showing one dimension as rows and another dimension as columns.
Frequently, the amount of information in a multi-dimensional array will vastly exceed the amount of information that can be displayed in a coherent manner at one time in a graphical interface of an application. For example, a spreadsheet may include way more rows and columns than can be displayed on an electronic display at one time at a size that would be readable to a human user. Accordingly, a user may have to manipulate the interface of the spreadsheet application to access and view cells in rows and columns that are not currently displayed. Further, some applications provide the ability to hide entities in a multi-dimensional array, such as by hiding columns of a spreadsheet. In this example, a user may have to manipulate the interface of the spreadsheet application to access and view cells in hidden rows or columns
More generally, when a user is accessing information organized in a multidimensional array using a graphical interface displayed on an electronic display and that interface requires user manipulation to access all entities in the multidimensional array (e.g. cells), the user will often manipulate the interface (e.g. via horizontally and/or vertically scrolling) to access previously non-displayed entities (e.g. hidden or off-screen cells) in the dimensions (e.g. rows, columns, layers, etc.) that contain information he or she expects could be useful. However, often this manipulation reveals to the user that the entities that were previously not displayed in the dimensions (e.g. rows, rows, columns, layers, etc.) that he or she is interested in are blank. This means that the time and effort that the user just spent on that manipulation activity was wasted.
Frequently, if a user is accessing information organized in a multidimensional array using a graphical interface displayed on an electronic display and that interface requires user manipulation to access all entities (e.g. cells), the user is provided with an indication, such as the presence of a vertical and/or horizontal scroll bar, that lets him or her know that some portion of the array is hidden from view and therefore it is possible that additional useful information will be revealed if he or she scrolls. However the typical indicator is limited to the presence of a scroll bar and this only indicates that some additional display area will be displayed if they scroll. It does not indicate whether this hidden area contains additional cells of interest to the user.
A need exists for improvement in graphical user interface methodologies for conveying the absence of data in a multidimensional array. This, and other needs, are addressed by one or more aspects of the present invention.